In traditional telephones, a dial tone is emitted when the telephone receiver is activated (e.g. placed in the “off-hook” position). The dial tone informs a user that the telephone is awaiting dialing for connection into the telephone network. More recently, telephone service providers have offered a audio prompt which uses a voice message instead of the dial tone when the phone is in the off-hook position. Such prompts may give the user instructions for voice activated dialing (VAD) and/or be used for advertising and/or branding purposes.
The telephone user either hears a standard dial tone only or an audio prompt only. One issue created with having an audio prompt is that customer premise equipment (CPE) devices such as modems or fax machines cannot draw a dial-tone. Moreover, if the standard dial tone is used, another user may be unaware of the voice options available when the phone is off-hook.